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Has a team ever had two players finish 1-2 in DPOY voting??

Also, Donovan Mitchell will almost certainly never deserve a #2 DPOY finish. You can count the number of guards that good defensively through history on one hand.

Actually that's very untrue. I'm starting to go through the list going back as far as 1980 and there's Guards littered throughout the list with Top 5 finishes or better.

I'm far from finishing the list, but here's some teammates who finished together in the top 5 DPOY voting during the last 10 years:

06-07: 2nd- Bruce Bowen, 3rd- Tim Duncan
07-08: 4- Shane Battier 5- Metta Crazypants
10-11: 2- Kevin Garnett 5- Rondo
12-13: 1- Marc Gasol 5- Tony Allen

These 2 years saw teammates finish together in the top 10:

14-15: 2- Draymond 6- Bogut
16-17: 3- Kawhi 8- Aldridge

It's funny, I just started looking into this as sort of a "what if" in regards to how good DM and Gobert can be playing together and I'm coming away more and more excited about what this team might be becoming. Basically, going back 40 years, when you see a team that produced two top 5 defenders, almost every single time you're looking at a team that was either winning championships, or at least a top 4 seed in their conference more times than not.

Looking at that list definitely takes some of my worry away as far as how the Jazz are going to generate offense and makes me think that the people that should be worrying are the opponents who need to try and find a way to score against the Jazz.

Btw, I'm officially calling my shot: Gobert and DM both finish in the top 5 within the next 3 seasons and I won't be shocked if it happens this year.
 
Rudy Gobert was clearly the DPOY this past season. He didn't win it. And he never will. Through no fault of his own, he's a total bad***. But these media voters who never watch games or do statistical research will never give it to Rudy. It's going to be Draymond or Kawhi that get it every single year whether it's deserved or not. It's all about popularity and reputation. Not necessarily what happens on the court.

Yes, Rudy gets no credit. He only finished 2nd in the DPOY voting and lost to a more versatile defender on a better defensive team
 
Rudy Gobert was clearly the DPOY this past season. He didn't win it. And he never will. Through no fault of his own, he's a total bad***. But these media voters who never watch games or do statistical research will never give it to Rudy. It's going to be Draymond or Kawhi that get it every single year whether it's deserved or not. It's all about popularity and reputation. Not necessarily what happens on the court.

Rudy will win it. Going through the list shows that just like everything else the NBA does, voters usually vote a guy in at 2, 3, or 4 before giving them the award. It's like this unspoken rule that you have to "pay your dues".
 
Actually that's very untrue. I'm starting to go through the list going back as far as 1980 and there's Guards littered throughout the list with Top 5 finishes or better.

Key word of my statement: deserve

Sure, there's plenty of guards who've had good finishes in DPOY voting, and as far as I can tell not one of them has deserved to win it going back to the inception of the award (Moncrief probably the closest just due to weak defensive competition in the early 80's). Robertson/Cooper/Jordan over in prime Hakeem/Eaton is an absolute joke, same goes for Artest over Duncan/Wallace and Payton over Robinson/Mutombo. Kawhi over Draymond the last couple of years was at least close, but I feel those went to the wrong guy as well.
 
Key word of my statement: deserve

Sure, there's plenty of guards who've had good finishes in DPOY voting, and as far as I can tell not one of them has deserved to win it going back to the inception of the award (Moncrief probably the closest just due to weak defensive competition in the early 80's). Robertson/Cooper/Jordan over in prime Hakeem/Eaton is an absolute joke, same goes for Artest over Duncan/Wallace and Payton over Robinson/Mutombo. Kawhi over Draymond the last couple of years was at least close, but I feel those went to the wrong guy as well.

I dunno, there's a lot of Guards out there that draw the toughest defensive assignment night after night. I think I saw plenty of names on the list that deserved to be there.

I also think DM's ability to steal the ball is the most likely part of his game to carry over from Summer League into the regular season. If this kid ends up leading the league in steals at some point and is D'ing up some of the best athletes on the court night after night, I can't fathom why he wouldn't deserve strong consideration for DPOY.
 
Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman were all on the All-Defensive 1st team one year IIRC.

Not really what the questions was, I know.
 
Rudy Gobert was clearly the DPOY this past season. He didn't win it. And he never will. Through no fault of his own, he's a total bad***. But these media voters who never watch games or do statistical research will never give it to Rudy. It's going to be Draymond or Kawhi that get it every single year whether it's deserved or not. It's all about popularity and reputation. Not necessarily what happens on the court.

Rudy will win DPOY. If you doubt that you doubt Rudy and I'd be happy to place a bet on that.
 
Rudy will win DPOY. If you doubt that you doubt Rudy and I'd be happy to place a bet on that.

Seriously, who doubts Rudy?! It was fitting, I saw the instagram pic of Hayward at the horse races in his nice suit and sweet *** fedora yesterday and about 2 minutes after that I saw the pic of shirtless Rudy pumping iron. Even though I have no doubts about Gordon's work ethic, I think seeing those 2 contrasting pics was a very cathartic experience that all Jazz fans need right now.
 
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